N° 60–2000: Caring for the Earth - the European Space Agency's satellites ERS and Envisat

It is expected that the event will be attended by up to one thousand participants from all over the world, representing the scientific community, operational and commercial users, and service providers. The symposium offers an opportunity to appraise the state of the art in ERS applications and explore the potential of Envisat, which is due to launch in June 2001.

The symposium will host 600 presentations by scientists, remote sensing experts and industry representatives, giving a comprehensive overview on work being done in science and applications using data provided by ESA's two earth observation missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2.

The ERS missions continue to make an important contribution to environmental monitoring and our understanding of the physical and chemical processes underlying Earth systems, on the global and local scale alike. By integrating ERS data with local information from other sources, national authorities and operators gain a powerful tool for environmental monitoring, and valuable information for planning and preventive action. The transition from ERS to Envisat is being managed in such a way as to ensure continuity in the provision of environmental information; once it is completed, a stream of new data will become available for oceanography and atmosphere studies, with particular emphasis on marine biology and atmospheric gases and aerosols.

The Envisat satellite is Europe's contribution to the mission of monitoring Earth's oceans, landmasses and atmosphere. The European Space Agency has received some 700 projects proposed by scientists all over the world, designed to exploit this unique and valuable data source. At the symposium, ESA will present its in-orbit commissioning plan, for calibration of the satellite instruments and validation of the derived data products. Over 100 scientific groups are supporting ESA in the preparation and execution of this commissioning phase.

The symposium programme includes 42 sessions for different disciplines: ozone monitoring, cloud aerosols, ocean dynamics, risk management, agriculture, global environmental issues and many other areas of research and applications. ESA's new commercial distribution policy for Earth observation data will also be presented, along with the Agency's strategy for Earth observation activities and future mission plans.

An exhibit will be set up for the duration of the symposium for presentations by thirty different institutions and industry organisations, including demonstrations and poster sessions.

Further information on the ESA ERS/Envisat Symposium can be found at: http://www.esa.int/sympo2000

For more information on ESA, go to: http://www.esa.int

The persons to contact for any additional questions (e.g. interview opportunities) are:

Maurizio Fea

Head, Training and Promotion Section

Earth Observation Applications Department

ESA Directorate of Applications Programmes

Tel.: 0039 06 94180940

Fax: 0039 06 94180942

E-mail: Maurizio.Fea@esa.esrin.it

Franca Morgia

Public Relations

Tel.: 0039 06 94180951

Fax: 0039 06 94180952